


Future Imperfect

by cordeliadelayne



Series: Man-Made [3]
Category: Primeval
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, Future Predators, Gen, Light Angst, Time Travel, Timey-Wimey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-04
Updated: 2016-04-04
Packaged: 2018-05-30 23:56:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 12,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6447268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Where Helen Cutter is involved, nothing is ever as it seems. And everything comes full circle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Part 3 of the Man-Made series which should be read in order. Originally posted to Livejournal in 2009.

**Present**

“This not talking isn’t really working for me.”

Cutter looked up from the corpse he was examining and stared at Stephen, who was leaning against the car, eyes scanning the grassy area around them. The younger man had been back on the team for two weeks and dealt with one anomaly, but however much Stephen might wish that things had changed, they hadn’t. It was exactly like before, when his affair with Helen had been revealed; they were working together as a team, but that distance was still there. The mistrust. The loneliness.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Cutter said, covering the body back up. Whatever had come through the latest anomaly had ripped the poor woman to shreds.

“I mean, we used to be able to talk. About everything.”

“Not quite everything.”

Stephen frowned and opened his mouth to retort when gun shots to their right had him reaching for his own weapon. Cutter barked into the radio and Caroline began calling for help. He and Stephen ran further into the Park, Stephen with his gun drawn, Cutter with a barely remembered tranquilliser gun in his hand.

It was Caroline’s second mission with the team and Cutter had decided that she’d be safe enough with Connor and Abby, especially since they’d been joined by a couple of heavily-armed soldiers (Lester’s new edict and one that Cutter was reluctantly complying with, for the moment). But perhaps this was another well-intentioned but misguided judgement on his part. As always in this brave new world he felt like he was simply playing catch-up as events steamrolled right over him.

He burst through the clearing a few seconds after Stephen and clutched at his side. He really needed to start using the gym for its intended purpose.

Stephen was already talking to a sobbing Caroline who was sitting on the grass, cradling her arm to her chest. The two soldiers were dead, their bodies clearly victims of the same creature that had attacked the female dog-walker (and her dogs). Connor and Abby were nowhere to be seen.

“Stephen?” he asked breathlessly.

“They’re gone,” Caroline answered instead.

Stephen, hunched down next to her and examining her injury, turned to look at Cutter, face drawn. “They found the anomaly. Some creatures came though, and killed the soldiers.”

Caroline picked up the tale. “They crowded around us, just like those creatures when…” She glanced nervously at Stephen, whose expression didn’t change. “Like they were herding us towards the anomaly. Abby shot one of them but the other pushed her and she fell on me. That’s how I got this.” She cursed under her breath as the movement jarred her injured arm.

“I’m pretty sure it’s broken,” Stephen told Cutter.

Cutter nodded. “And so they took Connor and Abby through the anomaly?”

Caroline nodded, wide-eyed. She should have known this whole project was too big for her. “They didn’t have anywhere to go _but_ through the anomaly. They would have been killed otherwise. Connor…Connor said to tell you they’ll try and get themselves back. But...how? They don’t know where they are.” She started to sob and hated herself for it. Tears wouldn’t help anybody.

“Hey, hey, we’ll find them. Okay?” Stephen told her, gently patting her leg. “You’re just in shock. Here, put this on.” He took off his own leather coat and draped it around Caroline’s shoulders. Then he looked over at Cutter who was bent over and appeared to be examining the ground.

“What is it?” he asked, going over and standing next to his friend.

“Abby’s gun,” Cutter replied, handing it over. Stephen examined it.

“She got three shots off at least. Maybe one of the creature’s is injured.”

“And mad,” Cutter replied. He was staring out into the distance, trying to will the anomaly back into existence. “They’re trapped in the future, presumably, and they’re unarmed. At least when we were trapped we had supplies and some idea of what we were doing.”

Stephen winced. Clearly he and Cutter had very different interpretations of their time in the Silurian. All he could remember was how much of an idiot he’d been, and that Cutter’s trust was a hard won gift to replace.

“I’ll call Lester,” Stephen said to Cutter’s back. “And get Caroline to a hospital.” Cutter didn’t move. “We can’t do much on our own.”

“No, we can’t.”

Just three words but they settled deep in Stephen’s bones. Rejoining the team had been a terrible mistake and one that was compounded by every day he remained there. When they got Abby and Connor back, he’d leave. The future he’d seen would be different now, surely? His presence wasn’t needed.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. But there was always the chance that without him on the team everything would be worse. If the person who saved him didn’t, would he still be back here? Or did being back mean that they had and so he could leave with impunity? He didn’t know; no one could possibly know for certain. He missed those days, when everything was black and white, before he was seduced by the grey.

But that was hardly the only thing he missed.

**Approx. 500 years in the future**

“Ow, ow, ow,” Connor muttered, rolling over on to his side while simultaneously grabbing hold of one ankle, trying to look around the room and sit up. Abby would have found it funny if their situation wasn’t quite so dire.

“Shush, Connor,” she told him. She leaned over close and helped him sit up. Her fingers gingerly prodded at his ankle and she winced every time he hissed. “I don’t think it’s broken, just a bad sprain.” She hesitated and then pulled him into a quick hug. “I was worried you weren’t going to wake up.”

“Huh?” Connor asked, his question muffled by his face in Abby’s jacket. She smelled nice.

“You were unconscious for about half an hour,” she told him.

“What? Hang on, where are we?”

He looked around. They were in a very nondescript cell of some kind. No windows. No door either, which was a bit odd. At least until Abby pointed to the floor.

“It’s some sort of electronic trap door. They took us up here and then just left us.”

“They?” Connor asked, wishing he hadn’t missed out on all the action. Or left Abby to fend for herself.

“Didn’t say much except “move” and “shut up”,” Abby told him. “I’ve no idea who they are. They just showed up after the Future Predators herded us through the anomaly. I don’t think they wanted to hurt us though.” She turned to make sure she was looking Connor in the eye. “Connor, one of them closed the anomaly. With something that looked a bit like a detector.”

“Oh god,” Connor muttered. “We’re really in trouble aren’t we?”

Abby sighed. “What was the first clue, Connor?” She got up and started running her fingers around where she thought the joint to the trapdoor should be, if only she could see it, there must be something… “I’m sure it was around here…”

A loud grinding sound from below sent her scurrying backwards.

“What’s that?” Connor asked, shifting his weight a little and then wincing as he knocked his foot. He tried to bite back his cry but Abby was by his side in a flash.

“Are you okay? You’re looking pretty pale.”

Connor nodded and then immediately regretted it, his hand flying to his mouth. Thankfully he was able to stop himself from throwing up, but it had been a close call. Abby gently patted his back, whilst keeping her eye on the trapdoor that was now lowering itself.

“If a creature comes through…” Connor said and then shrugged.

“I know, there’ll be nothing we can do.” Abby braced herself. They might not have any weapons to defend themselves, but they wouldn’t go down without a fight.

**Present**

James Lester was standing in the middle of his office at the ARC, hand still holding the phone through which he’d just been told that two members of the team were missing and a third injured. All he asked for was a simple life. No complications, no mayhem. Just professionals doing their jobs.

“Sir, is everything all right?” The young man standing by the door asked him.

Lester shook his head and replaced the phone before taking a deep breath, and turning around. “I’m afraid not.” He looked the soldier up and down, hoping that he was as good in reality as his CV would lead him to believe. “It looks like you have your first mission, Captain Becker.”

Becker nodded. He was ready for this. Whatever the problem, and by the look on Lester’s face it was as serious as it got, he’d do everything he could.

“What exactly is the problem?”

Lester was stopped from replying by an anxious Jenny hurrying into his office.

“Does no one knock anymore?” Lester asked uselessly. Jenny ignored him.

“Have you heard?”

“Yes, I’ve just got off the phone with Stephen.” He pointed at Becker. “This is Captain Becker. He’s transferred…”

“Have you questioned her?” Jenny interrupted. Becker started to slink away, not wanting to get into the middle of an argument he knew nothing about, but Lester’s glare effectively stopped him in his tracks.

“I only just received the phone call,” Lester pointed out. “Believe me, I am as worried about Abby and Connor as you, but going in to Helen’s cell all guns blazing…”

Gun fire echoed around the atrium and Lester raised his eyes to the ceiling, a silent prayer to whoever was listening that today could start getting better any time now. He did note with some pleasure that Becker had already removed his gun from its holster and had taken up a protective stance by the door.

Jenny and Lester hurried to the window and looked out. Soldiers were pouring into the room, with Helen Cutter sauntering in after them, looking even smugger than usual. Which was some feat, Lester added silently to himself.

“Is there another way out of here?” Becker asked, eyes darting around the room as if a secret passageway might make itself evident.

“Unfortunately, that wasn’t part of the architect’s design,” Lester replied with a curl of his lip.

“So what do we do?” Jenny asked. Her last encounter with Helen Cutter hadn’t gone well and even if she wasn’t prepared to admit it to the others, part of her was itching to even out the score. Plus one more person in the world who knew about Claudia Brown set her teeth on edge.

“I think it’s time we introduce Captain Becker to our nemesis.” And with a grim smile he led the way down the walkway to where Helen was waiting, leaning against a table as if she owned the place, and had all the time in the world.

And as if she was holding all the cards. Which, Lester noted, she probably was.


	2. Chapter 2

**Present**

“What’s wrong?” Cutter asked Stephen. After making sure that Caroline was taken away in an ambulance to the hospital (with several assurances that they’d let her know what was happening as soon as they heard anything) and that some soldiers were stationed at the anomaly in case it reopened, Cutter and Stephen were heading back to the ARC. Cutter and Connor had been working on a way of predicting the anomalies, maybe even opening them but all their research was in Cutter’s office and the labs, and he needed to see his notes. 

“I can’t get hold of anyone at the ARC,” Stephen replied. He tried one number and then another. First Jenny, then the main Reception, then the lab, then Lester’s personal “only in case of nuclear war” number. No one was answering. 

Cutter and Stephen exchanged bleak glances and Stephen swore under his breath as Cutter sped up. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

“No,” Stephen agreed. He flicked through the numbers on his mobile, wondering who else he could call. There didn’t seem that many options. None that he hadn’t already tried, anyway. 

Cutter swerved around a corner and Stephen dropped his phone in his haste to grab hold of something solid. “The hell, Cutter?” 

“We need to get to the ARC,” Cutter replied shortly. He was in no mood to debate things with Stephen. 

“Do we though?” Stephen asked quietly. 

Cutter took his eyes off the road long enough to stare at Stephen and for Stephen to lose a couple of years off of his life. “The road, Cutter! The road!” 

Turning back Cutter just managed to avoid slamming into a kid on a bike. He waved a half-hearted apology to the boy’s irate mother and then carried on at top speed. 

“Of course we need to get back to the ARC. We need to find out what the hell is going on.”

“But doesn’t this seem like too much of co-ordinated attack? Just think about it. We get a call about a anomaly related death. We find a body, but no anomaly. Connor, Abby and Caroline get attacked by future predators that take Abby and Connor to the future, presumably. At the same time we lose contact with the ARC.”

“We don’t know it’s a future predator attack,” Cutter mumbled, but he was following along all the same. 

“But we do know someone who knows all about the future. And we know where she is.”

“The ARC,” Cutter replied, slowing down. What Stephen said did make sense. And going in half-cocked is what had led to so many of their problems. 

“Right,” Stephen replied. “Helen is bound to be behind this. I can just _feel_ it.” 

Cutter looked over at Stephen and was surprised to see a look on Stephen’s face he’d never thought he’d see there. Pure hatred for another human being. He stopped the car and turned off the engine. Then he leaned forward and patted Stephen on the leg. Stephen startled a little under the touch but didn’t move away. 

“You’re right. We need to come up with a plan.”

**Future**

“We need to come up with a plan, Connor,” Abby was saying. “We have to find our way back to an anomaly. Or find out who’s keeping us here.”

“Must be Helen,” Connor said. 

“She’s back at the ARC, remember?” Abby sighed. “It could be someone she was working with, I suppose. She wasn't the one who put Stephen back together in the first place.”

Connor glumly nodded. Being in a conspiracy wasn’t as much fun as theorising about one. 

Slowly the trapdoor began to move downwards again. Abby positioned herself nearby, her legs poised to kick whatever or whoever came up through it. But once the trapdoor clicked into place the only thing on it was a plate of cheese and crackers and a glass of milk. 

“How old do they think we are, five?” Connor asked. His stomach did flip at the sight of food, but he knew it wasn’t worth it. “It’s probably poisoned, anyway.”

“Yeah,” Abby said. “Probably.” 

“So we’re stuck here?”

Abby looked over at Connor and then went to sit by him, snuggling up to his chest and laying her head on his shoulder. Surprised, Connor took a moment to put his arm around her and hold her close. 

“At least they don’t want us dead.” 

“Yet,” Connor muttered darkly. Abby had nothing to say to that. 

**Present**

“And just what is the meaning of this?” Lester demanded. He resolutely stood in front of Becker, who had just had his gun taken from him, making it clear that he didn’t want to show any weakness in front of Helen. Becker, for all that he’d been in the job for two seconds, took the hint, and kept near Jenny, though he had a feeling she wouldn’t take kindly to his protection either. 

“Well you see, there are a few things that I needed to put into play. But first…” she nodded at one of her soldiers who immediately went over to the Anomaly Detection Device and began extracting data. 

“Just what do you think you are doing with that?” Lester asked. 

“You have quite a collection of information on the anomaly’s and…other things. I’m just borrowing it.” Helen smiled and Lester’s blood ran cold. 

“Why do you need our information? Surely you’ve got your own?” Jenny asked, coming forward slightly. 

“Ah, Ms Lewis. So very nice to see you again.” 

Jenny growled very low in her throat. Becker looked impressed. “You haven’t answered my question.” 

Helen smiled and walked part way up the walkway so she was face to face with the others. “I just need to double-check my timings. After all, I knew when my rescue was going to be needed.” She waved her hands around her as more soldiers appeared and began dismantling ARC operations, in some cases grabbing hold of protesting scientists and technicians that got in their way. “And something’s coming. Something that’s going to make the world see just what it is you people have been doing.” 

“We’re not the ones hopping through time like some demented Marty McFly,” Lester retorted. But it was clear that Helen Cutter only had time to listen to Helen Cutter. 

“And then the ARC will be no more. And neither will any of you.”

And with that she turned her back on them and walked over to the soldier by the ADD. She held out her hand, took whatever it was he gave her and then began to saunter out of the room. 

“And the prisoners, ma’am?” one of the soldiers asked. 

“Kill them,” Helen replied, not even turning back to look. “Kill them all.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Present - Outside the ARC**

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Cutter asked Stephen. Stephen just looked over at him, eyebrow raised. “Right. What other choice is there?” He looked glumly at their surroundings. He didn’t know what conversations his other self had had before they moved into this metal monstrosity, but he found it hard to imagine that Lester could have been _that_ persuasive. He’d dearly love to know what had happened to make him leave his university office. His perfectly good, perfectly homely office. 

Stephen seemed to know exactly what he was thinking. “Nick, I know you don’t like the place. But Jenny’s in there. And so is the rest of the staff. And it’s not they’re fault they’ve got caught up in Helen’s web.” He didn’t add “ _it’s mine”_ , but Cutter heard it all the same. 

“I’m just as responsible for us getting into this mess. If I had just listened to Helen’s wild theories…”

“You couldn’t have possibly known she was right. Besides, it’s not in Helen’s nature to share.”

Cuter nodded. “Okay then.” He took a deep breath. “Are you sure you don’t want me to…?” He waved his hand to take in the car they were sitting in and the nearby surroundings. Stephen smiled. 

“Thanks. But I got it. You know what you have to do?”

Cutter patted his coat pocket. “Yeah. I still think…”

“You’ll do fine,” Stephen reassured him. “And it’s better I do this part, in case something goes wrong.” 

Cutter didn’t like it, but Stephen was right. He nodded one final time and got out of the car. “Just be careful,” he told Stephen before slamming the door shut and hunking down so he could approach the first checkpoint around the ARC. This was going to get messy. 

**Inside the ARC**

“I could try and take them, sir,” Becker suggested, out of the corner of his mouth. Lester just turned around and rolled his eyes at Jenny. 

“Ah, brilliant, another hero in the making.”

“Sir?” Becker asked, looking confused. 

“What are we going to do?” Jenny hissed. The soldiers were debating amongst themselves and then she was sure she could see them picking straws; deciding which of them was going to pull the fatal trigger. For the first time in a long time Jenny genuinely believed they were not going to make it out alive. 

“Pray for a miracle?” Lester asked. 

Which is when the lights out. 

“Get down,” Becker shouted, pulling the other two down to the floor. “Head towards the exit,” he hissed, feeling his way down the walkway as the others did the same. The soldiers were shouting and calling for torches, their prisoners momentarily forgotten. 

“Why doesn’t the backup come on?” Jenny whispered into Lester’s ear. But he didn’t have the chance to answer as a loud bang followed by the squeal of tires proceeded metal and glass going flying around the atrium. The three of them huddled down behind the final stretch of walkway, not able to see what was happening at first. 

“Freeze!” Someone shouted but a gunshot aimed at the ceiling silenced them. 

“Stay where you are!” A familiar voice shouted. “You are surrounded. Put down your weapons.” 

“Stephen?” Jenny asked, standing up. Becker tried to get her to stay put, but she pulled herself away from him.

“Jenny, are you okay?” 

She nodded and then realised that he couldn’t see her clearly either. “Yeah, we’re okay.”

“Great, get over here. While the rest of the team round these guys up,” he added for the soldier’s benefit. And then he flashed his car’s headlights so they could find him. 

Jenny, Lester and Becker hurried over to the car and quickly got in, while the soldiers started to gather their wits and their weapons. “Close your eyes,” Stephen instructed the others, as several soldiers began aiming their guns at the car. As they did so Stephen threw several objects out of the window and then reversed hurriedly, making sure not to look directly at the smoke grenades he’d just thrown. The sounds of their rumbling thud against the metal of the Anomaly Detector followed them out of the ARC as they sped towards the front entrance, where Cutter was waiting to be picked up. 

With a grin Cutter slid into the back next to Jenny, who was caught between him and Becker. 

“What just happened?” Jenny asked, a little breathlessly. 

“These two numbskulls just damaged government property,” Lester replied from the front where he was holding on for dear life as Stephen paid little attention to the laws of the road. 

“You know what, Lester?” Stephen said. “Never change.” And then he started to laugh. 

**The Future**

“I think I’ve…” Abby panted, “nearly…there.” 

Connor watched, holding his breath, as Abby tried to get the latch of the trapdoor to spring open. She was using a broken piece of the plate from the cheese and crackers, the sharp edges equally digging into her hand as much as they did the wood around the latch. But there was no way he was going to ask her if she was okay, not after their uncomfortable couple of hours sleep. 

Suddenly, with a not at all dramatic “snick” the trapdoor sagged enough for Abby to push it down further, jogging the mechanism into working. 

“Come on,” she urged. She grabbed Connor’s arm and he hobbled quickly onto the trapdoor to perch next to her. They only just fit, if they snuggled a bit closer than Connor was comfortable with after having woken up not long ago. 

“You know we’re going to be in trouble if they’ve got guards posted down there,” Connor pointed out in a whisper. 

Abby shrugged. “Maybe. But we can’t just do nothing. The others won’t know where to start looking for us.”

“We’re on our own, then?” Connor asked. He gave Abby what he hoped was a reassuring grin. “Just like the A-Team.” 

Abby smiled indulgently and then peered over the sides to the floor that was rapidly approaching. So far, so good; there was no signs of life anywhere. Especially not the future predator or armed kind. 

“Do you think you can jump the rest of the way?” Abby suddenly asked. Connor boggled. 

“Eh?” 

“I just think we need to get a running start, that’s all.” She tried to keep her voice calm but she could see what Connor couldn’t – windows into the next room where creatures with long limbs and inhuman eyes were marching up and down. She didn’t know what they were – neither quite like the future predator nor any sort of prehistoric creature she’d yet encountered – but she knew that they needed to keep quiet and keep moving. Better that they be out in the open than trapped in a tiny room. 

She hoped it was better to be out in the open. 

“Okay,” Connor said quietly, picking up on her mood. He silently cursed himself for having an injured ankle, even while he knew that there hadn’t been anything he could have done about it. And far better it be him that was hurt than Abby. 

“One, two,” Abby began to count as the trapdoor lowered nearer to the floor and the sounds from the next room got loud enough for even Connor to hear. "Now!” 

They jumped.


	4. Chapter 4

“Take a left, here,” Lester instructed and Stephen did as he was told. Lester had said he knew of a few places they could hide out that weren’t on any ARC computer, which was just the sort of thing they needed to hear right now. 

It had been a foolhardy plan, more luck than skill that it had been pulled off without any of them getting hurt. But all the same Cutter couldn't help be impressed with the way Stephen had taken charge. It was nice to see some of his old decisiveness had come back. 

“I still don’t know how _you_ managed it,” Jenny said, her sharp staccato voice treading over his thoughts. 

“It was…What do you mean, how _I_ managed it?” he asked. He caught Stephen’s bemusement in the rear view mirror and heard his soft snort; suddenly he felt in the middle of a conspiracy. Well, another one. 

“Managing to fuse all the power at the ARC,” Jenny said. “Not exactly your area of expertise.” Her tone implied quite clearly that she didn’t think very much of any area of his expertise. 

“I happen to be a very good electrician.” This time Stephen’s humph of amusement was louder. Cutter shook his head. “Is this it?” 

They all turned to look at a dilapidated old manor house, clearly somewhere that had seen better days. Vines grew freely outside and in some cases, where windows were broken and falling apart, inside. Weeds were more abundant than flowers, wrecked pieces of farm equipment littered about the front porch. 

“What is this place?” Jenny asked. 

“Used to be an MI5 safe house during the war,” Lester explained. “Strictly off the books.” So few words, so many implications. “It was used as a getaway for research scientists after that. Then it was abandoned.”

“Abandoned?” Stephen repeated. He didn’t like the sound of that. “What for?”

“Budget cuts I imagine,” Lester replied with a far too nonchalant shrug. 

“Does it at least have electricity?” Jenny asked. 

“Looks like some sort of generator shed over there,” Becker said, the first words from his mouth since they’d left the ARC. “These places usually had their own power supply.” He glanced at Lester, aware that everyone was now staring at him. “I’ll go check it out?” 

At Lester’s curt nod he slipped out of the car and then leaned down to grab the gun from his ankle holster that the soldiers back at the ARC had overlooked. Then he was sauntering over to the shed, eyes alert. 

“Who is he, anyway?” Stephen asked. 

“The new head of ARC security,” Lester replied, completely straight-faced.

Stephen stared incredulously at Becker’s back. “He’s doing a sterling job,” he muttered, not quite under his breath. 

Lester didn’t reply, having had similar less complimentary thoughts about Becker himself. He realised that Becker couldn’t be blamed for events that had been set in motion months, if not years before, but sometimes irrational blame placing was better than self-reflection. 

**The Future**

“Shit, shit, shit,” Connor muttered under his breath. His ankle was throbbing, not helped by having forgotten until that last moment that it was the foot he really shouldn’t be landing from a great height on. But that wasn’t what was really worrying him. No, that he reserved for the fact that large, lumbering creatures were behind them and a very locked door was in front of them. 

“Will you be quiet,” Abby hissed. “I don’t think they have very good eyesight, but that means…”

“Oh,” Connor mouthed silently. He’d trust Abby’s judgement on that. After all, she’d been the one to observe their movements as she’d landed next to Connor and dragged him to safety. In fact, she’d been the one to do pretty much everything and Connor was feeling torn between embarrassment and guilt. 

Frustrated and trying not to take it out on Connor, Abby took another look over the metallic crates they were hiding behind. Whatever the creatures were she was fairly confident that they posed a minimal threat – at least when you took into account being captured by future predators she’d seen tear a human being to pieces with her own eyes. She figured they must be some backup guards; if their captors had wanted them dead surely they wouldn’t have bothered locking them away, would have just had them killed without all this nonsense getting in the way. 

Not that she knew why they wanted her and Connor. What could someone in the future want with them, when they obviously had access to far superior technology? 

Or maybe not so superior after all. Turning back to the door she saw that somehow Connor had managed to unscrew a panel low to the floor and was busy re-wiring it. He turned to look at her and winked and she hurriedly hid her smile. He was too endearing for his own good some times. 

She glanced back at the creatures and then frowned. They were gone. 

**Present**

Becker slipped inside the outhouse and frowned. Dust lay heavy in the air, cobwebs and curled up leaves giving the place an eerie, abandoned feeling. Not one to let appearances deceive him, he gave the building a quick once-over, weapon always at the ready. Confident that there were no people hiding in the shadows he began to examine the generator. 

He’d taken an interest in engineering at school, encouraged by his maternal grandfather, and it had proven very useful knowledge throughout his time at Sandhurst and beyond. He blew away the dust on the top of the generator and began to examine the wiring, the buttons, the levers, anything and anywhere that might have sustained any damage that would preclude it’s working. Thankfully it looked like it was just abandoned, not dysfunctional. 

The snap of a twig outside had Becker spinning around and pointing his gun straight at the door as someone stepped inside. 

“Hey,” said Stephen, pleasantry forestalled by the sarcastic curl of his lip. “I wanted to see if you needed a hand. But I guess you’ve got it all covered?”

Before Becker had time to put his gun away and apologise, Stephen was already disappearing back outside. He sighed. He’d really destroyed any chance of making a good impression on his new team. Best to just get on with the job and show them what he was capable of, rather than try and talk them around. In his experience, actions proved the measure of the man, not words. 

Outside Stephen was stalking towards the house with a grim look on his face. But before Cutter could catch his eye and ask what was wrong, Jenny was planting herself in his way. 

“Do you have a plan?” she asked him and he frowned, thoughts still resting on Stephen. “For finding Abby and Connor?” she clarified, as if he might not know what she was talking about. 

“If we can download those records Helen got, from the backup server, maybe…”

“So, basically, you have no idea,” Jenny interrupted as Cutter trailed off. “Why does that not surprise me?”

Cutter blinked and focused on Jenny. She looked angry. At him. Which he couldn’t understand for a moment; this wasn’t his mess. 

“I don’t see why you’re…”

“If you could just…” She bit her tongue to stop the tirade before it properly started. It was no good asking Cutter to control his wife, and it wasn’t really what she meant anyway. If anyone had suggested she should be controlled like that she’d have punched them, and no doubt Helen would have as well. Helen was her own woman, and blaming Cutter for her actions was unreasonable. Blaming him for his own though, that was quite satisfying. 

“Guys?” Stephen called from an open window on the ground floor. “I could do with a hand setting up.”

Cutter sighed as Jenny immediately went off to help. Not that their conversation had been going anywhere good, but at least it had been going. 

Resigned to the fact that he and Jenny were never going to see eye to eye on Helen he slowly plodded after her. Finding Abby and Connor was what he had to focus on right now. He couldn’t let himself get distracted by anything else.


	5. Chapter 5

**The Future**

Connor’s hands were shaking, his head and leg throbbing, but he hunched his shoulders over the wiring he was working with, not wanting Abby to catch sight of what he was doing. He knew it was stupid to feel like this, like he was just being a burden to Abby, they were a team and a damned good one. But he couldn’t help it, he wanted to protect her, not be the one who needed protection. 

Abby gently touched his shoulder and he glanced around at her. They were trying to be as quiet as possible but Connor didn’t like the look on Abby’s face. 

“Wh-“ he started to ask but she merely gulped and slowly pointed upwards. Connor followed her gaze and then froze, hardly daring to breathe. 

The creatures were hanging from the beams over their heads, looking like monstrous versions of sloths, ready to pounce at any moment. How adept at jumping they must have been to get up there, Connor didn’t want to think about. Didn’t want to think about a lot right now, except finally being useful enough to get Abby to safety. 

He shuddered and let his gaze shift back to Abby’s face; the terror in her eyes spurred him on. 

He turned back to the wiring and with a twist of his wrist the connection that would open the door was made and the metal door in front of them slid open silently. 

Abby’s grip tightened on his shoulder and he nodded, though without turning back around. He trusted Abby would know what he meant. On three, they moved. 

**The Present**

Stephen and Jenny were clearing a path from the door to the living room and the kitchen when Cutter entered the house. Although dirty and strewn with leaves courtesy of a broken window the place was in surprisingly good condition. He leaned against the doorframe and mentally made a note to ask Lester for more details on exactly when this last place was used, and what for. He didn’t entirely trust Lester’s previous statement on the matter. 

A slow hiss of sound and then the electricity flickered back, nearly every light in the house turning on. Cutter suspected this meant that whoever had left this place had done so in a hurry; Lester was _definitely_ getting quizzed about this. 

“I guess Becker’s done something useful, today, then,” Stephen muttered to nobody in particular. 

“Unlike some people,” Jenny responded and stopped from pushing twigs and what looked like a bird’s nest off the coffee table to glare at Cutter. 

Still confused he fully entered the room, ignoring the way Stephen was grinning at him. Clearly there was more to this situation with Jenny than her being pissed off at Helen. But he could hardly ask her straight out what was the problem, not in front of everyone like this. Instead he settled on a simple, “What would you like me to do?”

She took the bird’s nest and put it into his hands. “There are eggs. Make sure they get taken outside.”

As Cutter did as he was told, a dark look on his face, Stephen finally began laying out the computer equipment. “What’s Lester doing?” he asked Jenny. 

She shrugged. “Something about checking out the upstairs.” They exchanged weary glances. “I should probably go see…”

“How are we coming along?” Lester asked, striding into the room, still surprisingly pristine except for the mud on his shoes. 

“Getting there,” Stephen replied. 

“And you’re certain we can log onto the ARC’s computer’s from here?” Cutter asked, returning from the garden with mud on his shoes and splashed up the side of his trousers. The others decided not to ask. 

“The ARC’s mainframe has backup servers housed elsewhere that can be remotely accessed from anywhere in the world, if you hold the keycodes.” They all turned towards Becker who was standing somewhat stiffly in the doorway. “I’m fully briefed,” he explained. 

Not sure how to read the expressions on their faces he stepped inside some more; he may not be feeling confident but he was determined to show it. 

“Toy soldier’s right,” Stephen replied. “And it needs two keycodes so…”

Jenny and Lester both reached under their shirts and pulled out metal tags with symbols carved into them attached to a long chain. 

“Never leave home without it,” Lester replied grimly. He motioned for Stephen to get out of the way and then sat down at the closest laptop. Jenny handed her necklace to him and got as close as she could to watch what would happen next. 

She tried not to pay attention to the way Cutter’s forehead crinkled as he frowned. “Why wasn’t I aware of this?”

“You were at the briefing. Perhaps you were just uninterested,” Jenny responded. Annoyance was a far better emotion to focus on right now. 

“Children, _please,_ ” Lester warned. “I have a headache.”

“Not the first time Cutter’s heard that,” Stephen said, with a smile in his friend’s direction to soften the blow. 

The tension ebbed out of the room as even Cutter laughed. He and Jenny looked over at each other and mouthed “sorry” to each other. Then Cutter’s gaze turned to Stephen, who was intently watching Lester’s fingers as they flew over the keyboard; he was beginning to understand what Abby had meant when she’d told him that Stephen was the one who really held the team together. Maybe there was something there that he could explore. 

But before he could make up his mind how to proceed, Lester was inflicting a string of curses at them. 

“What is it?” he asked. He moved around to see what the others were looking at. “Damn it,” he swore. 

“What does it mean?” Becker asked, staring down at the same data as the others but not understanding why they had all such angry looks on their faces, nor why Stephen had become deathly pale. 

“Oh, nothing,” Stephen replied bitterly. “Just Helen bloody Cutter up to her usual mad schemes.”

And then he got up and left before he did something he’d regret. Like punch the new boy.


	6. Chapter 6

**The Future**

Abby ran, dragging Connor after her. They could hear the heavy breathing of the creatures, the clicking of claws against metal pipes moving in time with their own footsteps. They daren’t turn back, just kept on going, zig zagging between metal boxes, searching vainly for a red light like the one they’d seen before that would indicate a door, someway of getting out of there. 

They didn’t have much chance to work out exactly where _there_ was though. It looked vaguely to Abby as if they’d been in a storage unit and this was some sort of laboratory; if she had the chance she’d have grabbed a scalpel or some other make-shift weapon but she didn’t want to stop, not with the creatures so close behind, not when Connor’s breathing was becoming so laboured. 

For the first time in a long time, she didn’t think she and Connor were going to make it. 

**The Present**

Stephen had stormed off to the side of the house, ducking under some overgrown bushes to do so, which is why it had taken Cutter longer than he would have liked to find him. Stephen was the tracker, his skills heightened by what had been done to him in the future (not that Stephen wanted to talk too much about that to any of them). Cutter was just the one that followed in his wake, admiring Stephen’s skill and thankful he had someone like Stephen on his team. 

At least it had used to be like that. 

Cutter came into a small clearing and stared at Stephen. He was sitting on an overturned log, seemingly staring into space and unaware of Cutter’s presence. Or at least so Cutter had thought.

“It’s me again, isn’t it?” Stephen asked. He turned his head slightly so Cutter could see his profile and then returned to looking out at the mass of trees and bushes that made up the garden. Cutter wouldn’t have been surprised if a whole other house was buried under the foliage. 

“What do you mean?”

“Letting Helen get to you. All of you,” he amended. 

Cutter shook his head and came to sit next to Stephen. “You were right, this morning.” Stephen looked blankly at him. “When you said not talking wasn’t working.”

“God,” said Stephen with a humourless laugh, “was that really only this morning?”

Cutter smiled weekly in return. It did feel like weeks since Abby and Connor were taken. 

“I forgave you, long before you died. I just,” he shrugged, aware that Stephen was watching him intently. “Everything was changing. I found myself in a brand new world and my anger at you, that was familiar. It sounds ridiculous when I say it out loud.”

“No,” Stephen interrupted. “I know what you mean. I…I felt a little like that myself. Everyone was pushing me away and Helen was _there._ Even when I knew what she was saying didn’t quite fit I never let myself question why I was trusting her.” He shook his head despondently.

“We really are a pair, aren’t we?” Cutter chuckled. “We should know better by now not to let Helen come between us.” He gestured back at the house. “Between any of us. Jenny’s certainly mad at me because of her and I…” He stopped abruptly when he realised Stephen was properly smiling for the first time in months. “What?”

“What did you do last night?”

Cutter blinked at the non sequitur but decided to play along. “Wrote some reports, checked Abby’s woolly mammoth analysis, went home, had a glass of wine and some cold pizza and then went to bed. Why?”

“What were you supposed to be doing?” Stephen asked, enunciating his words carefully as though talking to a young child.

“I didn’t have any plans…oh.” With alarming clarity it all came back to him. How he’d told Jenny that he’d been impressed with the way she’d handled the Diplodocus the other day, how she’d smiled and said that was just one of a string of impressive things she was capable of and would he like to come have dinner with her on Thursday. How today was Friday. 

“I don’t think you can totally blame Helen for that one,” Stephen said. 

Cutter groaned. “So not only do I stand her up but I didn’t even offer an explanation. How could I have forgotten?”

Stephen shrugged as if the idea was a complete mystery to him, before once again turning sombre. 

“But the break-in at the ARC _was_ all Helen.” He stared down at his hands and although Cutter desperately wanted to interrupt and tell Stephen that it would be all right, he bit the inside of his cheek to keep quiet. “It was my DNA she was after. She had the whole thing planned…” He and Cutter looked at each other, the same thought crossing their minds. 

“Everything was planned,” Cutter repeated, “down to the last detail.”

“She knew your house was being watched.” Stephen stood up, unable to contain his restless energy as he continued to fit the pieces together. “She _let_ herself be captured. She didn’t really care about finding out who saved me, it was getting hold of my new DNA she wanted, and all the research the ARC had done with it. My brand new spanking DNA,” he added bitterly. 

He shook his head and then stopped, mid-motion, thoughts whirring. Everything clicked into place as he realised why Helen had also taken the information from the ADD.

But Cutter just nodded, caught up in the idea of discovery and not noticing the change in Stephen’s mood. “For some reason she couldn’t get at you in the future – maybe she got caught up somewhere or you came back here sooner than she expected.” Cutter stood up now too, pacing back and forth as though giving a lecture; the fact that Stephen was now ignoring him in favour of staring curiously into the undergrowth was lost on him. “So she comes back, follows you, gets to know your routine, your habits. Maybe she even waited till her experiment worked, till she could be absolutely certain that you weren’t going to die, that your communication with the creatures was fully functioning…”

“Cutter…”

“Then she needed to get your DNA – but why bother collecting it herself when she knew the ARC scientists would do that and so much more, for her?”

“Cutter…”

“Throw us all off the scent, or at least try to by arranging Abby and Connor’s kidnap and take the ARC’s anomaly information. That way we’d be so preoccupied with that we…”

“Cutter!” Stephen shouted and Cutter finally turned to look at his friend, confused and feeling not a little bit guilty too. 

“Stephen, I’m sorry, I didn’t…”

“I know why the previous occupants of the house left in a hurry.”

Cutter blinked twice and then frowned. “I’m not following…”

Stephen removed a pen from his pocket and let it go. It flew through the air into the undergrowth and Cutter warily turned towards it. 

What he’d originally thought were reflections from the house lights on to discarded bottles and other detritus tangled up in the bushes, now looked suspiciously like dozens upon dozens of twinkling eyes.


	7. Chapter 7

**The Future**

Gun shots rang out and Abby and Connor launched themselves at the hard stone floor, Connor twisting himself so that he could practically shield Abby’s body with his own. 

Every muscle in Connor’s body screamed in protest; he felt like they’d been running for hours, though in reality it could only have been a few minutes. 

“Connor, look,” Abby hissed. She tried to point but Connor was crushing her arm under his chest and so she merely glared at him. In turn he shrugged and moved off her, not quite managing to hide his grimace of pain. “Are you okay?” she whispered, more conciliatory now, and gently touched his shoulder. 

He nodded, the sound of continuous gunfire and the death moans of the creatures making his head pound. 

“What did you want me to look at?” he asked. 

“Him, or her.” She pointed to the figure in the doorway, their savour. Whoever they were they were dressed in black with a utility belt around their waist, thick boots on their feet and quite clearly knew how to use a weapon. 

“Go on,” the figure shouted, voice just muffled enough by the balaclava hiding all but their eyes from them that they were still no wiser to their sex. “The door over there is open. Go through the first anomaly, it will take you back to your time. And hurry. I have somewhere I need to be.”

Connor and Abby weren’t going to question the mysterious person, not when the stench of death was already thick in the air. Instead they did as they were told and headed for their escape route, nodding their thanks as they passed. 

Connor paused a moment, causing Abby to stumble into him. 

“Connor,” she snapped into his ear, pulling at his arm. “We need to leave.”

“But their eyes,” Connor whispered back. “There was something familiar about them.”

Abby frowned and looked back herself. Their rescuer had now stopped firing and was crouched down low, seemingly examining the nearest dead creature. 

Now that Abby could see them properly, they did more closely resemble the future predator than she’d first thought. Or at least the future predator after it had undergone some serious reconstructive surgery. She tried not to think about what they’d used to do that. 

But Connor was right about the person too, there _was_ something about their posture…

“Helen,” Abby and Connor mouthed at the same time, and then they turned to look at each other, fear mirrored in their eyes. 

“You don’t think?” Connor asked. 

“Yeah,” Abby whispered, pulling Connor towards the door and the outside world. “I really, really do.”

**The Present**

Gun shots rang out and Cutter and Stephen looked up at the house to see Jenny, Lester and Becker, shotguns in hand, firing through broken panes in the kitchen windows. 

“Get out of there!” Jenny shouted. 

“Right,” Cutter murmured under his breath. “Good plan.”

The creatures, something like the baby predators from the future they’d encountered before, as far as he could tell, were running at their ankles and trying to bite them. 

“Cutter, the back door!” Lester shouted. Stephen growled, kicked at a creature and then flung himself into the kitchen after Cutter. Becker moved immediately to secure the door and they all hurried back into the living room before the creatures worked out how to break through windows or open doors. They’d all seen Jurassic Park.

“Where did they come from?” Jenny demanded, her grip still tight around her weapon. 

“There’s an anomaly in the undergrowth,” Cutter told her. He whirled around to face Lester. “Did you know about this? Is that why you brought us here?”

“Of course not,” Lester replied, not quite looking anybody in the eye. Despite the fact that he had a shotgun tucked under his arm and baby predators scratching at the door behind him, he appeared perfectly unruffled. “The exact reason this safe house was abandoned was never made clear. To me, or anybody else.”

Cutter huffed. “You’re full of it, you know that Lester?”

Lester pursed his lips before replying, with a shrug, “at least I was thinking about ways of getting us away from your meddling wife.”

“We should leave,” Becker interrupted. “It isn’t safe here.” He didn’t turn to look back at the others, instead working with Stephen to push the sofa in front of the door. Not that he had any great hopes that that would do them any good, but he needed to do _something._ Needed the others to treat him as if he was useful. 

“And go where?” Cutter snapped. “Nowhere is safe.”

“Nick,” Stephen said softly, capturing Cutter’s attention immediately. “It’s not his fault.” _It’s ours._

Cutter nodded brusquely but didn’t apologise and Becker certainly wasn’t going to push the issue. 

“There have to be other places we can go. The back-up security teams will have got to the ARC by now.” Jenny moved over to the nearest window and peered out, ignoring Becker’s warning that she should stay away. “Lester, can’t you call someone at the Home Office?”

Lester nodded and reached for his phone. He flicked through his contacts list, wondering not only who could help, but who could help _and_ be trusted. It was surprising how much he missed the early days, when dinosaurs were the least of his problems. 

“Oh my god,” Jenny suddenly said and Lester disconnected the call he’d just been about to make. 

“What now?” he asked. 

Jenny didn’t answer. Instead she pulled the front door wide open. 

“Jenny!” Becker and Cutter shouted, glaring slightly at each other as they did so. 

“It’s Connor,” she said, stepping outside. Baby future predators were already mewling and snapping at her ankles, but she wasn’t paying any attention. Instead she was reaching for Connor, grabbing him in her arms as he stumbled, bite marks clearly bleeding through his trousers, his foot loose of it’s trainer and looking terribly swollen. 

Becker was the first to react, jumping over the coffee table and pulling both Connor and Jenny inside and slamming the door shut with his boot. 

“Secure the door,” he told Stephen as he helped Jenny with Connor. Instead Stephen rolled his eyes at Cutter and grabbed Lester’s gun from him. 

“Help me get these things out,” he told Cutter and with the butt of his gun he started swatting at the predators. 

A protest at letting baby predators loose on the neighbourhood was on the tip of Cutter’s tongue but one of Stephen’s glares was enough to make him bite it back. They could deal with the clean-up later. 

“Connor, Connor, can you hear me?” Jenny whispered. She and Becker lowered him to the sofa blocking the way to the kitchen, Jenny sitting down and cradling his head in her lap. “Connor?”

He groaned softly and his eyes slid shut. 

“Connor,” Becker said, less softly than Jenny. “Where’s Abby?”

Jenny glared at the soldier, but didn’t say anything. Instead she just stroked Connor’s dirt smeared face. 

“Future,” Connor muttered. “Had something to do. Be back soon.” And then he slipped into unconsciousness.


	8. Chapter 8

**The Future**

Connor and Abby rushed outside and blinked at the harsh sunlight. The sun was high up in the sky and looked almost red which cast an unnerving blanket of colour all around them. But they had no time to ponder what could have caused it. There was a sparkling anomaly on their right, tucked between some more buildings like the one they’d just left, and with Helen Cutter behind them they didn’t feel like they had any choice but to go through. 

“We’re nearly home,” Connor said with a smile. 

“Could be a trap,” Abby replied, though she smiled in return. 

“Yeah.” Connor suddenly looked glum so Abby planted a kiss on his cheek. “What was that for?”

“I need you to go through first, okay.” She started to pull him towards the anomaly. Connor went without much protest; she was a lot stronger than she looked. 

“Aren’t we going through together?” Connor asked. His brow furrowed in confusion. 

“I’ll be right behind you. There’s just something I need to see first.” Connor opened his mouth to object. “And I haven’t got time to explain, Connor, honestly. Just, please…what _is_ that?” 

The rumbling sound she’d barely been paying attention to now grew louder, and before they had a chance to get out of the way, dozens of baby future predators were leaping and running and rolling down the small embankment behind them and shooting through the anomaly in front of them. Abby and Connor tried to move out of the way, but it was a little hard when Connor couldn’t put his weight on both feet and Abby was both trying to kick the predators away from him and herself and trying to keep Connor upright. 

“Where are they coming from?” Connor wondered, wishing that he could do more to help. 

“I don’t know,” Abby whispered. She could just see through the open door that Helen was still examining the creatures that had attacked them, but she wouldn’t be there for long. And time was running out. 

“Just trust me, Connor, okay?” 

Connor nodded once. He trusted Abby with his life, with everything. He could do this for. So he stepped through and left Abby all alone. 

She took a deep breath and winced as a baby predator scratched at her leg, immediately causing her to bleed, even though she was wearing jeans. She kicked the creature away, but she had no time to worry about her injury. She realised she had a task to do. 

She hurried up the embankment’s incline and saw what she’d been hoping for. Another shimmering anomaly. She couldn’t see who had been responsible for opening it, perhaps it had merely done so of its own accord, or maybe Helen had opened it and had been waiting for the right time to go through. Whatever the reason for its being there, she was glad for it. She’d been half-afraid that she’d have had to find some way of opening it herself, and time was already running out. 

For she’d realised, when she and Connor had recognised Helen Cutter as their saviour, that this had to have been the moment, the very time, to which Stephen had been rescued. What she hadn’t realised until now was that _she_ had been his rescuer. 

No wonder Stephen hadn’t wanted any of them to know; who knows what could have been changed if she didn’t go through with this now. Would Stephen just have vanished from existence if she’d not realised, if she’d gone through the anomaly with Connor? Her head ached just thinking about it.

She remembered that Stephen had said twenty years had passed before his rescuer came through, but her presence here, with future predators, with Helen bloody Cutter, it was too much to have been coincidence. She’d bet her flat that Helen had been interfering with the timeline _again_ and had brought events forward. She gritted her teeth just thinking about it. All Helen wanted was to manipulate everyone. Manipulate Stephen. 

But she wasn’t going to let Helen get away with it. Not again. So she ran down the hill, thankfully less full of baby predators than it had been and paused, just before going through the anomaly. 

It all seemed so obvious now. Why Stephen had told her more details about his rescue than anyone else. She’d thought that she’d just been being a friend, that they were working through all their issues, that he could tell her things that he couldn’t tell the others because they’d already established that he could find in her a sounding board that would spur him on to do the right thing. 

That he was grooming her to be ready to save his life had never occurred to her. 

She was grateful though. Both that he had trusted her with that information about himself, and that he had told her, in what had been excruciating detail, exactly what she was about to face. Without that foreknowledge, she might very well have failed at the first hurdle. 

Instead she stepped confidently through the anomaly and back into the past. Stephen was lying in the corner, bleeding heavily, not far from where the anomaly had opened. He looked like a rag doll that had been tossed aside, all broken bones sticking through skin and thick pools of blood all around him. The creatures in the room seemed to have abandoned him in favour of attacking each other, the growls as they bit and mauled at each other’s flesh sending goosebumps along Abby’s flesh. 

Except for one. The sabre tooth. It was staring at her, clearly hungry. Thankfully Abby was well prepared for what she had to do. Even though her heart was pounding so hard she worried it might never recover from the strain. 

As the sabre tooth began to stalk towards her she backed up until she was next to Stephen, sliding on his blood and covering her shoes and the bottom of her jeans in it. His blue eyes stared up at her and she tried to say something, but no words would come. Instead she leaned down and pulled the gun he had in the back of his jeans out, her fingers slick with his blood and checked that it was still loaded (Stephen had never explained why he hadn’t used it himself, and she had been too afraid of the answer to ask) and fired. The sabre tooth went down straight away, a neat, clean bullet hole in the middle of his forehead. 

“Thank god for those extra shooting lessons,” Abby whispered. 

She glanced down at Stephen, whose eyes were falling shut, and knew that she had to move. The other creatures, startled by the gunshot, had now started fighting over the sabre tooth’s corpse, leaving her a clear path to the anomaly. 

Gathering up all her resources of strength she took Stephen by the shoulders, wincing along with him as the colour drained immediately from his face. Then she started to pull him, not daring to look anywhere but at the path she was walking. The briefest of looks at the blood trail she was creating had almost been enough to make her throw up as it was. 

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, as quietly as she dared. “I’m so sorry Stephen.” Tears were streaming down her face now but she barely noticed, except that her vision was becoming cloudy. “You’ll be fine in a minute.”

She gasped as they entered the future again. She hadn’t realised how cold the chamber had been until now. 

She pulled Stephen a little ways from the anomaly, which started to fade even as she looked at it. 

“Abby?” Stephen asked, then coughed as if even that short word was too much effort for him. 

“Shhh,” Abby said, brushing away the tears from her cheeks and unknowingly smearing them with Stephen’s blood. “It’s okay. Helen’s going to come along and make sure you get treatment. Shh,” she said as he started to object. “Don’t say anything, please? And you can’t tell her who saved you, okay? If she realised her part in all of this…” Abby shuddered. “I dread to think how she might change things. And you can’t tell anyone else, okay? No one else must know who saved you, not even me.”

She waited until Stephen had given the shortest of nods and then she left him, her heart protesting even when she knew this was what needed to happen. She ran around the corner of a building and put a hand over her mouth to stop herself from making any sound. 

She was just in time. Helen Cutter came running down the embankment, features distorted in surprise, her balaclava hanging loosely in the hand that didn’t hold a gun in it. 

“Stephen?” Abby heard her call. “But…” 

Abby felt an immense surge of pride then, that she’d managed to outwit Helen. But it didn’t last long when she peered carefully around the corner and noticed Helen’s eyes tracing the bloody footprints that led from Stephen’s body straight to her hiding place. 

Silently cursing her stupidity she started to back up a little, looking for another way out. She stared down the alley she was hiding in but all these outhouses looked like a maze, she wasn’t sure she wanted to get stuck down there unless she absolutely had to. 

Thankfully for her Helen was momentarily too concerned for Stephen, or at least for the experiments she could run on him, Abby added bitterly, for her to come after Abby. 

And so Abby watched as Helen started to drag Stephen away to the only place that would be able to save him and prayed that she’d done the right thing.


	9. Chapter 9

**The Present**

“How are you feeling?” Abby asked Connor. She was sitting in a chair by his bed in the ARC infirmary, gently holding his hand in her own. It had taken him a week to come out of his coma, a combination of the damage he’d done to his ankle, the bites of the baby future predators and his loss of blood. But now the colour had returned to his cheeks and he was beginning to grumble good-naturedly at them all, which was certainly a positive sign. 

“Great,” Connor said with a falsely bright smile, squeezing her hand. “Never better.”

“He’s just sore Lester won’t let him go home yet,” Stephen said from the doorway where he was slouching. 

“Am not,” Connor replied. 

“Are too,” Stephen and Abby said together before breaking into laughter. Connor pouted a little before joining in. 

“You know the doctor said that you’d be much better recovering here then back at the flat,” Abby told him in her best motherly fashion. “Besides, at least when you’re here we can pop in for help identifying dinosaurs.” 

“I suppose,” Connor grumbled. Both Stephen and Abby suspected he quite liked the ARC infirmary really, especially when the attractive head doctor was also a sci-fi geek and able to amply keep up with his Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica references. And Abby wanted Connor somewhere where he could get the best possible medical care, and where she could check up on him while he was sleeping and not have him notice. 

“Have you heard from Caroline?” Connor asked after a moment’s silence. 

Abby and Stephen exchanged glances. “She decided to head back home to her parents,” Stephen explained. “Things were a little too…well, you know.”

Connor nodded glumly. He’d been the one that had brought Caroline in to the team in the first place. He couldn’t help but feel some responsibility for the way things had turned out. 

“And Helen?” he asked after a moment. “No news on her whereabouts, I guess?”

“No sign,” Stephen grumbled. “Becker’s created a special ARC team that will go after her – any time we hear of an anomaly that team will go through and scout around for her.”

“I can’t believe she didn’t just kill us,” Connor said. 

“I guess she still wanted to make sure she had some sort of bargaining chip with us,” Abby said with a shrug. She didn’t want him to know how much she had been worrying about this herself. “Better that she saved Stephen and us, then she could prove that she’s not really so bad after all.”

Connor snorted. “As if anyone’s going to believe that.”

Stephen fidgeted in the corner but didn’t say anything. 

“Did you get a chance to look at the computer readout?” Abby asked. Stephen shot a grateful look her way; thinking about Helen was the last thing he wanted to do right now. 

“Oh, yeah,” Connor said, sitting up enthusiastically. “I think she was trying to work out when would be the best times to open all the anomalies we went through. Best thing is, she left behind enough of a footprint that I think I’ll be able to work out how she’s tracking the anomalies in the first place.” He slumped down again and frowned. “Of course, that depends on whether I ever get out of here.”

“How are the refurbishment’s going?” Abby asked Stephen, trying to distract Connor. 

Stephen shrugged. “Jenny seems to have everything under control. And despite what Lester might say, Cutter and I really didn’t do that much damage.”

“And Becker?”

“Jury’s still out on that one. At least as far as Cutter’s concerned.”

It had been Becker that had gone to the future to make sure Abby got back okay, once Stephen had told them the full story about what he suspected had happened. The soldier had insisted that as head of ARC security it was his duty, and seeing as Stephen had been reluctant to bump into himself and Cutter had both wanted to kill Helen and let her do what she had to to save Stephen, Lester had agreed that an unknown quantity such as Becker was a much safer bet. As it was, all he’d had to do was gently help a shell-shocked Abby through the anomaly before it closed, carefully patching up her wounds and treating her a bit like glass. 

She’d been worried at first that he would continue to treat her like that, which would certainly have been a bit annoying considering everything she’d gone through. But in fact he’d been treating her with more respect than he paid a lot of the other scientists, and she was definitely beginning to think his addition to the team was a welcome one. 

“Seems all right to me,” Connor said, squeezing Abby’s hand again. 

“Yeah,” Stephen replied, with a smile. “I suppose he has some good qualities.”

“I’m surprised you two aren’t jealous now that you’re no longer the prettiest members of the team,” Abby teased. 

“Hey!” both men protested. 

“What?” Abby asked, all wide-eyed innocence. She suspected she wasn’t fooling anyone. 

“Saved by the bell,” Stephen smiled as the anomaly alarm went off. The first time it had gone off since they’d been able to regain control of the ARC, Lester had sent an auxiliary team out, but now they, minus Connor, were fully cleared for duty. 

“See you later,” Abby promised Connor, patting his hand as she let it go. 

“Yeah. Don’t have too much fun without me.”

“We won’t,” Stephen promised as he held the door open for Abby. 

“Something large and crocodile-like at the British Museum,” Jenny told them as she passed, phone pressed to her ear. “It’s already up on YouTube so I’m going to get them shut down before I join you.”

She was gone before either of them could ask whether she meant the person who’d posted the video or the site itself, or even the Museum, though none of those scenarios would have surprised them. 

“Did you see Jenny come this way?” Cutter asked, rushing along the corridor. He carried on past them before they could tell him where she was and they found themselves listening intently as Cutter began to talk. “Ah, Jenny…”

“Becker’s waiting for you all…”

“Willyougooutwithmeagain,” Cutter interrupted. Abby and Stephen both had difficulty stifling their laughter. 

“I’m sorry,” Jenny replied. “What was that?”

“Will you…you know exactly what I said. I’m sorry about, before. But, I, well, will you?” 

“You’re really an infuriating man, you know that?” Abby and Stephen took great pleasure in imagining the look on Jenny’s face right now. “Very well, as long as you promise to actually show up this time.”

“Absolutely,” Cutter promised. 

“All right, then. I could do with a hand with…” Their voices drifted off further down the corridor and Stephen and Abby shared amused glances before heading down the corridor to the Anomaly Detector.

“Stephen,” Abby said, touching his arm to stop him before he went through the doors to the atrium. “We haven’t really had the chance to talk.” A dark cloud passed over Stephen’s face but he didn’t try to interrupt. “And I just wanted to say…Actually, I’m not sure what I wanted to say just…”

“It’s okay, Abby,” Stephen replied. And then he surprised them both by pulling her into a hug, wrapping his arms around her and trying not to let himself cry. “You saved my life,” he whispered into her hair, “and I will never stop being grateful for that. I don’t regret anything I’ve gone through.” He pulled back so she could look into his face. “I promise, all the pain, all the…all the _Helen_ created chaos, all of it’s been worth it. Because I’m back here, with you, and Cutter and Connor. And we can really make a difference. I know we can.”

Abby smiled softly at him and planted a kiss against his cheek. “Okay.”

“Everything all right?” Cutter asked as he and Jenny came upon them, not sure whether their interruption would be welcome.

“Yeah,” Abby replied. “Everything’s going to be fine.” 

“So let’s get moving, then,” Cutter said, marvelling at the way the team seemed to be gelling back together again. He refused, for the moment, to dwell on the fact that he owed Helen his thanks, even as he also wanted to shake her very hard for putting them all through the wringer in the first place. 

“You’re right,” Stephen said. “We have work to do.” 

And with that they headed out together, knowing they’d be able to tackle whatever was thrown at them.


End file.
